As Israel escalates its violence against Palestinians the media continues to insist that it is the fault of Gazans, writes Ramzy Baroud* Death was hovering over Gaza long before locally-made Palestinian rockets struck near the Israeli town of Sderot on 27 February, killing Roni Yechiah and sparking an Israeli retaliation that has already claimed 115 Palestinian lives. Yechiah's death was the first of its kind in nine months. The crude Palestinian rockets have often been criticised by Palestinians as useless in the tit-for-tat war underway, though they are easily used by Israeli officials as an excuse for keeping Gaza contained, i.e. on the brink of starvation. For Israel, the rockets are important as a pretext to maintain its siege of Hamas, a low-intensity war that creates a smokescreen for the confiscation of Palestinian land and the expansion of illegal settlements, and also as justification for the slow moving "peace process". But while pro-Israeli pundits in the US and elsewhere are prepared to defend Israel's actions, many Israelis are no longer buying into their government's excuses. According to a recent Tel Aviv University poll, cited by the Israeli daily Haaretz on 27 February, "64 per cent of Israelis believe the government must hold direct talks with the Hamas government in Gaza in an attempt to secure a ceasefire and the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit". The mayor of the Israeli town of Sderot -- which borders Gaza and is the main target of rockets -- told The Guardian on 23 February: "I would say to Hamas, let's have a ceasefire. Let's stop the rockets for the next 10 years and we will see what happens." Hamas was actually the first to issue calls for a ceasefire, and for years it has abstained from carrying out suicide bombings inside Israel. The uneven number of casualties speak volumes. While Yechiah's death is tragic, he was the "first person killed by rocket attacks from Gaza since May 2007, and the 14th overall since the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian armed clashes in September 2000," according to a Human Rights Watch press release on 29 February which quoted the Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem. B'Tselem reports that "1,259 of the 2,679 Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in the Gaza Strip [since September 2000] were not participating in hostilities when they were killed, and 567 were minors." News agency reports published in Al-Arabiya website on 22 February report that 190 Palestinians have been killed since the resumption of the peace process in Annapolis last November. That number grew when the Israeli army escalated its attacks against the Gaza Strip, killing 34 Palestinians in 48 hours between 27-28 February. And more Palestinians were killed in the West Bank during the same period. Yet Israel's actions are characterised by most of the media as a legitimate "response" to Palestinian violence. In an article published days before Yechiva's death, the Sydney Morning Herald reported on the death of three Palestinians killed by Israeli tank missile. The men were picnicking at the time, according to eyewitness accounts. However, the article seemed to report an entirely different story, featuring a photo of a Palestinian rocket that landed in an empty field. "Deadly rain", read the caption, conveniently forgetting that the rockets had not caused any deaths. The article also undermined the fact that the killed Palestinians had been picnicking, citing this as yet another Palestinian claim. Donald Macintyre of the Independent, usually much more objective than his counterparts elsewhere, reported on the killing of four Palestinian children: "Four boys playing football have been killed in Gaza by Israeli air strikes... as Israel responded to the death of a man from a barrage of rocket attacks with a bloody escalation of violence." The perpetuation of the idea of Israel responding to events rather than initiating them remains one of the most insidious forms of pro-Israeli bias. When the utter desperation of Gazans forced them to storm the border with Egypt in search of food and medicines their cries fell on deaf ears. Palestinians were herded back into Gaza and the border resealed. The number of troops guarding the border was increased, reportedly beyond the limit set in Egypt's 30-year-old peace accord with Israel. Besieged, browbeaten and starved -- in a way every major human rights group has decried as illegal and inhumane -- Palestinians are told to expect more of the same. Only this time the terminology used is much more frightening. Israel's Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai threatened Palestinians in the Gaza Strip with a "holocaust". "The more Qassam [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they [the Palestinians] will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves," he said. The Hebrew word shoah has been used almost exclusively to describe Nazi attempts at Jewish genocide. While many media commentators attempted to limit the damage caused by Vilnai's words, the acknowledgment of the Israel-imposed crisis on Palestinians -- and the term "bigger" in particular -- is but another reminder of the horrors under which Gaza lives, and for which Gaza is blamed. US and Israeli celebrities -- including Sylvester Stallone, John Voight and Paula Abdul -- rallied at an LA benefit concert for Sderot. Speaking via Satellite, Clinton, McCain and Obama also expressed their allegiance to Israel, as if only Israel's dead counted and only Israel's security mattered. Clinton -- like the other presidential contenders -- took full advantage of a golden opportunity to express her "unwavering commitment" to Israel. When will US officials begin to acknowledge that Palestinians and Israelis have equal rights and equal responsibilities? When will the media begin to provide a context and stop manipulating terms and numbers in such a way that the Palestinians are always at fault? When will we accept that military occupation and state-sponsored terror begets violence and breeds more terror. This is the case in Palestine, as everywhere else. It will remain so until circumstances change. * The writer is editor of PalestineChronicle.com.
